According to the General Services Administration, which handles procurement for the US federal government, the deal is the first to offer a government-wide discount on cloud infrastructure. It runs until the end of November and is part of a wider move by tech firms to cosy up to Trump’s bureaucrats.
No dollar figure was offered for the cloud side, but the GSA seems thrilled. The agency claims this deal, and others it’s thrashing out with tech giants, is designed to harness the “commanding purchasing power of the federal wallet.”
Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum said, “Through procurement consolidation, we’re aiming to bring the leverage of the whole, commanding purchasing power of the federal wallet to these technology providers to get the best discounts for the taxpayers.”
Salesforce previously offered a 90 per cent discount on Slack. Google, Adobe and Elastic have put deals on the table, but Oracle’s is apparently the first one that bundles in cloud infrastructure.
Gruenbaum insisted the goal was cutting waste by “breaking down silos and enhancing interoperability,” and chucked in a few buzzwords about AI and transparency for good measure.
“The Trump administration is focused on ensuring that we are delivering the most cutting-edge technology to optimise and pull forward federal government systems into the modern era,” he said.
Oracle, which made its name flogging database licences, has been trying to muscle its way into public sector cloud deals for years. It scored a partial win in 2022 when it was included alongside AWS, Microsoft and Google in a massive Defence Department cloud contract offering “commercial pricing, or better.”
The GSA says this new deal includes access to Oracle’s AI services and some handholding to help the government move creaky IT onto cloudier turf. It also opens the door for the Pentagon to hop aboard at Oracle’s discounted rates.
Oracle boss Safra Catz said: “We remain steadfast in our commitment to the US government and are thrilled to work with the GSA to help every department and agency modernise their technology and gain the benefits of Oracle Cloud and AI.”
Meanwhile, Oracle founder Larry Ellison has been doing his bit for visibility. He was seen grinning with Trump during a White House event launching “Stargate” a set of data centres Oracle is building with SoftBank for OpenAI.
With all this effort, Oracle clearly hopes that cutting federal invoices could fatten its market share. Despite being late to the cloud party, the company reckons its total cloud revenue growth will hit 40 per cent this fiscal year, up from 24 per cent last year. That’s if it can grab more scraps from the AWS and Azure buffet.